Thursday, December 8, 2016

The United States was behind in the Space Race against the Soviet Union. Three of the four Atlas rockets test rockets blew up before achieving orbit. The orbiting vehicle was space capsule which had the leg room of a Volkswagon Beetle with the aesthetic of a garbage can. Still NASA astronaut John Glenn braved the dangers of flying an prototype space vehicle in Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962 and orbited the Earth three times.

Mission Control believed that there was a problem with the heat shield which might cause Glenn to burn up on re-entry. Thus the flight protocol was changed on the fly and Glenn would have to make a manual splashdown. As it turned out, it was merely a malfunctioning gauge. The only harm to Glenn was that the pressure from blowing the hatch slightly cut the astronaut's knuckles through his gloves.Despite the harried re-entry, the experienced NASA test pilot was poetic in recalling his time in space, harkening to the joy of seeing four sunsets in one day. Later, Glenn was received as a hero in Wall Street with a massive ticker-tape parade, larger than the celebration for Charles Lindberg's flight across the Atlantic. Glenn had intended to run for the US Senate in 1964 but had a withdraw due to a concussion. Glenn served as a Senator from Ohio from 1974 to 1999. In 1998, Glenn again flew into space on the Discovery Space Shuttle at age 77 to serve as a human guinea pig on geriatrics in space. Glenn is the oldest person to go into space.

Senator John Glenn died at age 95 on December 8, 2016 at Ohio State University's James Cancer Center.Requiem in pacem ad astra

Thursday, December 1, 2016

When there were early reports of a mass casualty incident at The Ohio State University, progressive politicians instinctively inveighed against gun violence.

The reality was that the perpetrator ran his car into a crowd of people, then exited the vehicle randomly attacking the stunned students with a butcher knife until being shot dead by a law enforcement officer. The campus was put on lockdown until the incident ended. About a dozen innocent people were injured, one critically.As details emerged from the act of terrorism, it became clear that the attacker was a Somalia transfer student to Ohio State. At the beginning of the year, the attacker had been interviewed by the student newspaper about practicing his Muslim beliefs on campus. His social media posts praised jihad. ISIS exulted the Buckeye jihad. Yet an Ohio State Residents Life official tried to squelch any bad news about their fellow Buckeye in social media, while simultaneously promoting Black Lives Matter. One wonders if the university experience is now education a costly political correct indoctrination with supposed safe space for licentiousness.

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) seized upon the Donald Trump generated controversy concerning flag burning to voice patriotic support for protecting Old Glory.There has been some talk that the Reagan Democrat might choose to caucus with the Republican Senate Majority in the 115th Congress. This seems dubious, as there were similar rumors that Manchin might vote with his feet after winning the Special Election in 2010 to replace the deceased Democrat mainstay Robert Byrd (D-WV). But those prospects never panned out and Manchin ran for a full term as a Democrat in 2012.It should be noted that Senator Manchin will be up for re-election in the next cycle and he is vulnerable because Trump won the Mountaineer State by 40 points in the general election.

Saturday, November 19, 2016

In the midst of the liberal post election meltdown, progressives are pushing the idea that unless America accepts all undocumented aliens then they are racists as they suppose is President Elect Trump.Conservatives are pushing back on this smug conceit. On Tucker Carlson Tonight, a youthful anti-Donald Trump protester had to grapple with the question about America having a wide open door for anyone to come in.

One hopes that the court of public opinion will adopt the same fair evaluation standards for Senator Jeff Sessions as President Elect Trump's Attorney General that he took on the Senate Judiciary Committee to vetting nominees.

However, it is to be expected that the mainstream media will perpetuate the meme that Trump is stuffing his White House with racists and will seize upon anything to advance that impression.